卷二·第三十章　星占家应有的生活与操守

XXX. What Sort of Life and What Sort of Conduct Astrologers Ought to Have.

第三十章　星占家应有怎样的生活、怎样的操守

[1] Now you, whoever you are who undertake to read these books, when you have received the whole knowledge of the divine, and when, steeped in and initiated into the sacred rites of nature, [lacuna] the discipline of this hallowed work, shape yourself after the image and likeness of the divine, so that you may always be adorned with the renown of goodness. For he who speaks every day about the gods or with the gods must so shape and furnish his soul that he always draws near to the imitation of the divine.

〔一〕现在，你，无论你是谁，着手读这几卷书的人，当你领受了关于神圣者的全部知识，当你浸润于、入门于自然的神圣仪礼之中，〔此处原文有缺〕这神圣事业的规范，就要照着神圣者的形象与样式塑造自己，好让你始终以良善的声名为饰。因为每天谈论诸神、或与诸神交谈的人，必须这样塑造、装备自己的灵魂，使它始终向着效法神圣者靠近。

[2] Therefore learn and practice all the ornaments of virtue, and when you have furnished yourself with them, be easy of access, so that if anyone wishes to inquire about something, he may approach you without any fear or trepidation. Be modest, upright, sober, content with little food and small means, so that no base desire for money may bring disgrace on the glory of this divine knowledge. Take pains that in your conduct and purpose you surpass the conduct and purpose of good priests; for the high priest of the Sun and the Moon and of the other gods, by whom all earthly things are governed, ought always so to furnish his soul that by the testimony of all men he is proved worthy of such great ceremonies.

〔二〕所以，要学习并践行德行的一切装饰；以此装备自己之后，要平易近人，好让谁想求问什么，都能毫无畏惧惶恐地来到你面前。要端庄、正直、清醒，满足于粗茶淡饭和微薄的资财，免得卑鄙的贪财之心玷污这门神圣知识的荣光。要用心使你的操守与志向胜过良善祭司的操守与志向；因为太阳、月亮以及其他诸神——地上万物都由他们治理——的大祭司，必须始终这样装备自己的灵魂，好凭众人的见证证明他配得上如此重大的仪礼。

[3] Give your responses publicly, of course, and tell those who are about to consult you beforehand that you will state in a clear voice everything about which they inquire, so that nothing may perhaps be asked of you that it is lawful neither to ask nor to tell.

〔三〕作答当然要公开进行，并预先告诉将来求问你的人：他们所问的一切，你都会大声明白地说出来，免得有人或许问你一件既不许问、也不许说的事。

[4] Take care never to answer anyone who asks about the state of the commonwealth or about the life of the Roman emperor; for it is neither proper nor lawful that we should learn anything about the state of the commonwealth through wicked curiosity. Indeed, anyone who, when asked, has spoken about the fate of the emperor is wicked and deserving of every punishment, because he will be able neither to say nor to find out anything; for you should know that the haruspices too, whenever they have been asked by private persons about the state of the emperor and have been willing to answer the inquirer, always find the entrails set apart for this purpose thrown into disorder by a tangled confusion of the arrangement of the veins.

〔四〕要当心，绝不要回答任何人关于国家状况或罗马皇帝性命的提问；因为凭邪恶的好奇心去探知国家状况的任何事，既不合宜，也不合法。其实，谁若被人问起而谈论了皇帝的命运，他就是邪恶的，应受一切惩罚，因为他什么也说不出、也什么都找不到；你应当知道，脏卜师也是这样：每当私人向他们问起皇帝的状况、而他们又愿意回答求问者时，总发现为此而设的内脏被血脉排列的纠缠混乱弄得一团糟。

[5] Nor has any astrologer ever been able to define anything true about the fate of the emperor; for the emperor alone is not subject to the courses of the stars, and he alone is the one over whose fate the stars have no power of decreeing. For since he is lord of the whole world, his fate is governed by the judgment of the supreme God; and because the whole earthly expanse of the world is subject to the power of the emperor, he himself too is placed among the number of those gods whom the chief divinity has appointed to make and to preserve all things.

〔五〕也从来没有哪个星占家能对皇帝的命运界定出任何真实的东西；因为唯独皇帝不受星辰运行的支配，唯独他是星辰对其命运没有判定之权的人。因为他既是整个世界的主，他的命运就由至高之神的裁断治理；又因为整个世界的地上疆域都隶属于皇帝的权力，他自己也被列在诸神之中，就是首要的神性为造作与保全万物而设立的那些神。

[6] This reason confounds the haruspices as well; for whatever divine power is invoked by them, since it is of lesser power, it will not be able to unfold the substance of the greater power that is in the emperor. For he whom all the freeborn, all the orders, all the rich, all the nobles, all honors and all powers serve, having been allotted the power of divine and immortal license, is placed among the chief orders of the gods.

〔六〕这个道理也使脏卜师困惑；因为他们所呼求的无论什么神灵，既然权能较小，就不能展开在皇帝之中那更大权能的实质。因为一切自由人、一切阶层、一切富人、一切贵族、一切官职与一切权力都侍奉他，他分得了神圣而不朽的自由之权，被列在诸神的首要等级之中。

[7] Therefore, whoever has asked anything about the emperor, I would not have you confound him with a harsh and severe answer; rather, persuade him in gentle words that no one can find out anything about the life of the prince, so that, admonished by your persuasions, he may correct the error of his mind and lay aside this madness of rashness. But neither would I have you denounce anyone who has made a wicked inquiry, lest, when he has been condemned to a capital sentence for the unlawful desires of his mind, you should seem to have been the cause of his death; that is foreign to the purpose of a priest.

〔七〕所以，无论谁问起关于皇帝的事，我不愿你用粗暴严厉的回答使他惊乱；而要以温和的言辞劝他：没有人能探知君主性命的任何事，好让他受你的劝说告诫，改正心中的错误，放下这种鲁莽的狂妄。但我也不愿你去告发任何作了邪恶求问的人，免得他因心中不法的欲望被判死刑时，你显得是他致死的原因；那与祭司的本分格格不入。

[8] Have a wife, have a home, have plenty of honorable friends; be constantly accessible to the public; keep apart from all quarrels; take on no harmful business; let increases of money never tempt you; stand aloof from every heat of cruelty; never take pleasure in other people's disputes or in deadly and pestilent enmities, but in all your manner of living let quiet moderation please you; flee factions, always flee turbulent contests.

〔八〕要有妻子，有家，有许多正派的朋友；要经常让公众能接近你；要远离一切争执；不要承揽有害的事务；钱财的增长永远不要引诱你；要远离一切残忍的火气；永远不要以别人的口角或致命而有害的仇怨为乐，而要在一切生活方式中以安静的节制为喜；要逃避党争，永远逃避动荡的争斗。

[9] Bind the faith of friendship with strong ties. Take pains that your good faith remains uncorrupted in all your actions; never pollute your conscience with false testimony; never practice usury, lest a wretched increase of money come to you from other people's necessities; neither give nor exact the pledge of an oath, especially if it is exacted for the sake of money, lest the divine protection of the deities seem to have been invoked for the sake of a miserable pittance of money.

〔九〕要用坚固的纽带系紧友谊的信义。要用心使你的信义在一切行事中保持不坏；永远不要以伪证玷污你的良心；永远不要放高利贷，免得从别人的急难中得来一笔可悲的钱财增长；誓言的担保既不要给，也不要索，尤其若是为了钱而索取，免得为了一点可怜的小钱，显得是在呼求诸神神圣的护佑。

[10] Show the right way of living to men who go astray, especially to those whom the bond of friendship has joined to you, so that, shaped by your instruction, they may be freed from the past errors of their life, and so that you may be able to discipline the ruined desires of men not only by your responses but also by your counsel. Never take part in nocturnal sacrifices, whether they are called public or private; and do not hold secret conversations with anyone, but, as I have set out above, practice the discipline of this divine art openly, in the sight of all.

〔十〕要向迷途的人指出正确的生活之路，尤其是那些因友谊的纽带与你相连的人，好让他们受你的教导塑造，从过去的生活错误中得到解脱，也让你不仅凭答语，还能凭劝告来规正人们败坏的欲望。永远不要参加夜间的祭祀，无论它们称为公祭还是私祭；也不要和任何人私下交谈，而要如我上面所述，公开地、在众人眼前施展这门神圣技艺的规范。

[11] I would not have you explain the vices of men too openly in handling nativities; rather, whenever you come to this topic, hold back your response with a certain blushing hesitation, so that you may not seem to reproach rather than to state what the evil course of the stars has decreed for a man.

〔十一〕我不愿你在处理本命时把人的恶习讲得太露骨；每当讲到这一处，要带着几分羞赧的迟疑把你的答语停一停，免得你显得不是在陈述星辰的恶运为人判定了什么，而是在责骂他。

[12] Always keep yourself apart from the allurements of the shows, so that no one may think you a partisan of any faction; for the high priest of the gods must be separate from and a stranger to the depraved allurements of pleasures.

〔十二〕要始终使自己远离表演的诱惑，免得有人以为你是哪一派的拥护者；因为诸神的大祭司必须与享乐的邪恶诱惑隔开，与之疏远。

[13] When you have adorned your soul with these ornaments and safeguards of virtue, approach this work, and pursue with a confident spirit the later books that we have written on effects. But if you have in any part turned your soul away from these precepts that we have stated about conduct, see that you do not come to the secrets of this discipline at the prompting of perverse desire or with the sacrilegious heat of rashness.

〔十三〕当你用这些德行的装饰与护卫装点了你的灵魂，就着手这项工作，并以安心的精神去研读我们所写的论效验的后几卷。但倘若你在任何方面把灵魂从我们所说的这些操守的规矩上移开，就要当心，不要在邪僻欲望的驱使下，或带着亵渎的鲁莽之火，来到这门学问的奥秘面前。

[14] Nor should you entrust the mysteries of this religion to the wandering desires of the soul; for it is not proper that the ruined minds of men be initiated into divine ceremonies. Nor will the discipline of this venerable knowledge ever be able to cling to a soul that is preoccupied and polluted by ruinous desire; and it always suffers the greatest loss when the wicked will of those who profess it defiles it.

〔十四〕也不要把这门宗教的奥秘托付给灵魂游荡不定的欲望；因为让人败坏的心智进入神圣的仪礼，是不合宜的。这门可敬知识的规范，也永远不能附着在一个被毁灭性的欲望所占据、所玷污的灵魂上；每当以它为业的人用邪恶的意志玷污它，它总是蒙受最大的损失。

[15] Be pure, then, and chaste; and if you have separated yourself from all the wicked acts that are wont to ruin the soul, and if the resolve to live rightly has freed you from all the odium of crimes, and if you bear yourself purified and mindful of your divine seed, approach this work and commit these later books to memory, so that the divine may hand over to you a complete knowledge and may draw near to your soul with a hidden, foreknowing majesty, so that, having attained the true knowledge of the divine, in defining the fates of men and in unfolding the course of life you may be instructed not only by your reading but by the judgments of your own mind, and more may be conferred on you by the divinity of the soul than by the teaching of books.

〔十五〕所以要纯洁、贞洁；倘若你已使自己远离一切惯于毁坏灵魂的邪恶行为，倘若正直生活的心愿已使你摆脱一切罪恶的憎恶，倘若你自觉洁净、记得你那神圣的种子，就着手这项工作，把这后几卷交给记忆，好让神性把完整的知识交给你，以隐秘而预知的威严走近你的灵魂；好让你获得关于神圣者的真知之后，在界定人的命运、展开生命的行程时，不仅受你所读之书的教导，也受你自己心智判断的教导，好让灵魂的神性赐给你的，比书本的教导更多。